Visual Inspiration #4

August 31, 2009 Leave a Comment

(Click on the links for parts one, two, and three.)

This workshop requires the use of a good visual dictionary. I have the DK Ultimate Visual Dictionary, but the Merriam-Webster one looks pretty nice, too.

Flip through the book, stopping at pages that interest you. Take a moment to study each double-spread, enjoy the images, read the labels. Keep a pen and paper handy to write down any ideas, associations, phrases or memories that occur to you.

Here are my impressions during this exercise, in real time:

The first pages that catch my attention are entitled Fungi and Lichen. I look at the diagrams and can’t picture myself writing about volva and globa and soprophores (at least not with a straight face). One of the pictures reminds me of the walk the kids and I took on which we found a piece of bark covered with lichen. My Right Brain starts spinning worlds where–instead of trees and plants–there are forests of mushrooms and meadows of lichen. Fungi need organic matter to feed on, so maybe I should put my lichenous world on a massive branch of a World Tree. Ah, yes. Yggdrasil. Norse mythology and giant-sized fungi–I could go for that!

Next up, the pages on medieval churches and Gothic architecture. I love architectural terms: flying buttresses, lancet windows (staggered triple lancet windows, no less!), cinquefoil molding. Now I actually get to find out what all those are! Recently I read an article about an actress who turned a 1910 Catholic church into a residence. What else might a Gothic church be used for, aside from religious services or as a tourist trap? A hospital or orphanage during wartime. Turned into a hotel by some enterprising billionaire. A shelter for homeless people, a meeting place for some kind of secret society. Converted into a high-tech dance club–or a Virtual Reality nightclub??–in a dystopian future. Ooh, I like that one.

My third example: pianos. Not too surprising, since I have pianos and the playing of them on my mind a lot (plus I need to practice right after I finish this!). Right Brain throws in all kinds of piano-related associations: the Holly Hunter movie, the poem Piano and Drums by Gabriel Okara, Sea Mist and Moonlight Sonata and Fur Elise. What a complicated instrument the piano is! RB sends up slices and slivers of Stories That Could Be: a missionary’s wife bringing a piano into the jungle, a fabulous piano maintained through dark sacrifices, a family of little Borrower-type people living in an abandoned old grand piano, someone calling a piano repairer in the middle of the night, insistent on having him come out to repair a piano right away and offering a lot of money to do it…

In this exercise–in all of them, actually–the visual images act as lenses to focus RB’s attention. They’re lightning rods that attract memories, trivia, news stories, snippets of literature. It’s a way to bring many ideas together around some connecting thread, in the hopes of sparking a story. I believe stories are born of the unexpected and unlikely marriage of two or more ideas that, at first glance, have nothing to do with each other.

Happy writing!

Filed Under: inspiration

why yes, I DO judge a book by its cover

August 29, 2009 Leave a Comment

And how could I resist the opulence of this dress?

It’s been a long time since I’ve been interested in fiction (like say, a couple of weeks) and I did not expect to be pulled back into it by a YA historical. Enjoying it, though!

Are you reading anything outside your usual genres?

Filed Under: reading

the end of things, the beginning of things

August 27, 2009 3 Comments

Fall is brewing in this part of the world. I felt it this morning when I woke up, and felt it again when we went out. There’s an edge to the air, a wildness in the wind. The sun slants in differently through the windows and into the yard. Gauzy tent caterpillar nests are wrapped around tree branches. Apples have arrived at the farm stand, alongside sweet corn and the first harvests of melons. There’s a tingle in the air that makes me come alive again. I can almost taste apple cider on my tongue and smell woodsmoke in the air.

Summer lovely and lazy, laving us in sunshine and warmth. But fall is the Queen of Seasons. My brain is waking up from the summer stupor, ready to plot and plan and make magic happen.

**

Last night, we finished watching Battlestar Galactica. I felt melancholy all day, reflecting on the bittersweet ending, saying good-bye to characters I’ve been involved with for many many hours–even the ones I didn’t particularly like. Sad that this is it. There are no more miracles, no more revelations, no more cheating death. The questions that went unanswered will remain so. The characters who died will stay dead. The pain and suffering that came before the end will forever be a stain and a shadow. There is closure, but it’s not the kind you’d expect at the end of a Disney movie.

D. thinks that I should probably not be watching another TV series any time soon. I agree with him. I get too wrapped up, too emotionally involved.

Such is the power of stories. Some times it feels so trivial to be a weaver of imaginative fancies, but at other times I’m reminded at how much stories can move people.

Am I strange, or do other people feel the same way I feel–melancholy, a little bereft, a little frustrated–after the end of a series like that?

Filed Under: personal

arrival of the torsos

August 26, 2009 2 Comments

Er, that sounds like the title of a B horror movie, doesn’t it? But, here, let me show you what I really mean:

See those people at the bottom? They have bodies! I’ve been watching Sir I. transition from “tadpole” people (the ones with legs and arms sticking out of their heads) to torso-endowed people all summer. He’s gone back and forth between the two types, but looking at his recent artwork, I think the torsos are here to stay.

Miss M. is largely focusing on circles: big and small ones for puppy-dog faces, oval-ish shapes for puppy-dog ears, spirals and sunbursts. That’s her smiley sun at the top of the picture.

The Baron is not yet producing art, though he did scribble on the floor with a pencil once. Today he tried to eat a crayon and “helped” Miss M. with a picture by drawing on her paper with a Tinkertoy rod. Better luck next time, baby boy!

One of the privileges of motherhood is witnessing the incredible developmemtal leaps that all young children make. Leaps in cognition, verbal skills, hand-eye coordination, art processes, fine and gross motor skills. What an amazing and awesome thing the human brain is!

Filed Under: creativity, kids at play

making their mark

August 23, 2009 Leave a Comment

A week ago, Sir I. was flipping through a book about the human body (he’d wanted to see what he looked like “on the inside”) and came across a handprint cast project. “We have to do this, Mom!” he said, waving the book at me. Of course I couldn’t say no in the face of such initiative and enthusiasm. Some sticky salt dough, lots of spilled flour and four hours in the oven later, we had these:

I love these handprints, souvenirs of an age where everything is fresh and vivid, when even the smallest tasks are full of adventure and excitement and possibility.

Filed Under: kids at play

performance anxiety

August 20, 2009 3 Comments

Tonight I’m walking down to the library to lead a short story writing workshop for teens.

Part of me is still dizzied by my brashness in volunteering to do this (this is the same part that whispers to me, snake-like, “Give up. You’re no good at writing/educating your kids/whatever. Let the specialists do those jobs while you fold laundry and watch soaps.” I know better than to listen to it–much). Another part informs me that I have been writing for the past six or seven years and I do have some things to share. Besides, I see this more as an opportunity to encourage these kids than to tell them how to write.

Three pages of notes notwithstanding.

It’s hard to distill all I’ve learned in these years to a few maxims. So much of what I want to tell them seems contradictory. Things like, “You can only learn if you sit down and write“, but also “You can learn from others so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time.” “Listen to critiques with an open mind” but “trust yourself and your story.” “Write what you want in the way you want it” but “Master the tools of good writing. Learn grammar. Learn to spell. Don’t overuse adjectives”

At the same time, I’m excited and optimistic about tonight. I love meeting creative people. I love talking about writing. I love watching young minds learn, explore, discover.

I’ll see you on the other side of this!

Filed Under: personal, writing process

Picture Books: Mapping

August 18, 2009 Leave a Comment

Sir I. loves maps. World maps, treasure maps, road maps, atlases and globes. I got a kick out of his commentary on our road atlas yesterday in the van: “Wow, look, I found Florida! And the north part of Kentucky!” (Yes, this kid managed to decode the world Kentucky all by himself, too). Half a year ago, we did a unit study on maps and unearthed some great material on the subject.

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney: This is an awesome first resource for mapping. The concept is simple: the girl draws herself in a map of her room, then her room in her house, her house on her street, and all the way out to her country on the globe. After we read this, we drew maps of various rooms in our house, found our town in our state, our state in our country, and so on, just like the girl did.

The Once Upon a Time Map Book by B.G. Henessey and Peter Joyce: More advanced–including grids, keys and legends, but the fairy tale maps are enchanting and detailed. My only complaint is that the maps are crowded, and it can be hard for little eyes to find things. And also, it’s out of print. Boo.

Which Way to the Revolution? by Bob Banner: Fun! Follow Paul Revere from Boston to Lexington, accompanied by friendly mice and thwarted by evil rats. Appealing simple maps and easy introduction to landmarks, map symbols and the compass rose. Sir I. loved it so much he requested I get it again from the library.

More on maps, for grown-ups too:

Filed Under: kids at play, picture books

the child as poet

August 17, 2009 Leave a Comment

Yesterday, the kids and I were out in the yard. They were doing their own thing while I read a chapter of Reclaiming Childhood titled “The Child as Poet”. I was racking my brain, trying to remember if my kids had ever made up an original poem when I noticed Miss M. staring intently at me. Her mouth was moving but I could not hear a word, so I called her over. She came up and very solemnly told me:

Bitter batter
We all had tea
Bitter batter
We all had tea

So, yes, on occasion my children do make up poems. Well-timed, Miss M!

Filed Under: kids at play

ten things that make me happy today

August 15, 2009 4 Comments

1. Bright sunshine.

2. Sir I. reading a sign at the farmstand by himself (“Potatoes under here, hiding from the light”).

3. Fresh sweet corn and juicy Pennsylvania peaches. Mmmm!

4. Taking Baby-zilla’s rampages in stride, including the dumping out of a box of spaghetti and a box of 96 crayons. Not to mention his happily pulling out a quarter of a box of wipes before I found him and put an end to it.

5. D. will be home soon! And it’s sooner every minute!

6. Buying a new frame for a raised bed. Listening to the kids talk about what should be planted in it next year. They’ve settled on sweet potatoes.

7. Realizing that I have enough food in the house to get me through Monday.

8. Watching Miss M. gently wrap her stuffed puppy, Cocoa, in bubble wrap (some of us mothers are way more overprotective than others, heh).

9. Chubby baby cheeks, fat baby thighs, and big drooly baby smiles.

10. The chocolate-toffee-things my sister sent me from California. Shh, don’t tell the kids how many I already ate, or they’ll want in on the action, too!

Your turn!

Filed Under: personal, random

tentative beginnings

August 12, 2009 Leave a Comment

Last night I wrote 619 words of a new story, the first time I’ve written original fiction in a long while. They were kind of meh and I knew they were kind of meh as I wrote, but I got them out in spite of the internal cringing. It doesn’t help that I’m currently reading Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear and suffering from an inferiority complex. It’s not fair of me to contrast my first draft with her polished published work. It’s not fair of me to compare my work with that of any other writer, because we all have our own styles and voices.

In this one thing, I need to learn to be kinder to myself.

It’s funny, though. Some stories just beg to be written. They come out strong and exuberant on the page. Others are quieter, but no less confident.

This story? The reason for its inception in written form is “Huh, I’ve kicked this idea around long enough, and there’s nothing in my RSS feed and no new forum posts to read, so maybe perhaps I should start writing it”. A reluctant, self-doubting kind of of beginning. I’m excited about my idea, just not confident in my ability to execute it. It’s the whole “it was better in my head” thing, again.

Perfectionism is my bane. Somebody send me a big stick to beat it off with.

Filed Under: short stories, writing process
« Older Posts